Why do we like the kinds of music we do? It could have to do with our brains (as well as the shape of our ears). We all love the sights and sounds of Christmas, but there are some noises that are hard to take, like SQUEEEK! The sound of fingernails on a chalkboard sets our teeth on edge, but it’s easier to take if we think it’s music. This may explain why certain songs can sound like raucous noise to one person but seem musical to someone else.
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Birds are more like people than we may suspect, and their songs prove it. Studies have revealed common musical patterns that stretch across different human cultures. These common traits may come from constraints to the way people sing, and researchers have determined this from studying song birds.
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Some deaths are suspicious. Now scientists think that a couple of famous musicians from the past may have died from vitamin deficiencies!
The most famous of these is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who lived from 1756 to 1791, and suffered from many infectious illnesses including coughs, fever, sore throats, and other bad cold symptoms from 1762 to 1791, the year of his tragically earth death at 35 years old. Most of these illnesses occurred between mid-October and May. At the latitude of Salzburg and Vienna, where he lived, it is impossible to make your own vitamin D from exposure to sunlight for only about six months of the year.
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Give him or her music lessons! Those childhood music lessons keep our minds sharper as people age, even if we no longer play the instrument. A study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music. Psychologist Brenda Hanna-Pladdy says, "Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging.read more